In 1492

by Kung Fu Zu10/9/17
I know it is not politically correct to admire Christopher Columbus and his “discovery” of the New World, but I am a die-hard believer in the greatness of the man and the importance of his work.

Today’s ignorant ideological leftist can only harp on, and magnify beyond recognition, the horrible things which came of Columbus’ discovery. He bangs the drum about the “genocide” of the indigenous peoples, as well as slavery. Yet he neglects to mention the increase in knowledge, expansion of freedom and growth in economic opportunities which came about due to the efforts and achievements of Columbus and others during the Age of Discovery.

More importantly, the leftist is unable or unwilling to give any context to his rhetoric. All of history is a story of the struggles between good and evil, cruelty and kindness, ignorance and knowledge and the striving for excellence versus wallowing in degradation. What is important for the understanding of any historical period or character, is to try and weigh the relative pros and cons in the context of the times and the human condition in general. That is the only way possible to come to an intelligent and honest understanding of the past. When one uses this method to evaluate the relative merits of Columbus, there should be no doubt that the balance of history tilts very positively to the credit of Christopher Columbus.

Happy Columbus Day!

(By the way, the day Columbus first sighted land in the New World was October 12, 1492. Today’s holiday is simply a bureaucratic invention so as to give government workers a long weekend. )

IN 1492

In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day; He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board; Some men worked while others snored.

Then the workers went to sleep; And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land; They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.

The Arakawa natives were very nice; They gave the sailors food and spice.

Columbus sailed on to find some gold To bring back home, as he’d been told.

He made the trip again and again, Trading gold to bring to Spain.

The first American? No, not quite. But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.

Kung Fu Zu is a conservative prognosticator who has traveled widely and lived outside the United States. He was born a little later than the 15th century but has indeed sailed the ocean blue a few times, if only in a jet. • (431 views)

The irony is that the Portuguese rejected his proposal because they knew his estimate of the circumference of Earth (gotten from Claudius Ptolemy) was much too low (though it had previous been computed correctly by Eratosthenes).

I am sure that I heard that Columbus only came to wipe-out the American Indians and put them into submission so we could put them onto reservations and have casinos close by for all us rich white guys to enjoy. I sure that was it…right? To be politically correct we should say Happy Genocidal Maniac Day. Or how about He was a capitalist before it was cool and before it then became evil.
This must really be tough for the leftist, so many lying reasons for them to hate Columbus, and they have to focus on just one lie.

As many episodes of Columbo as I saw, I should have caught it. I did catch KFZ “one more thing”, which originated in the pilot when the screenwriters, having ended an interrogation scene, thought of something else Columbo should have asked, and didn’t want to rewrite any lines, so they just added it.

I recall a multi-panel cartoon a couple of decades ago that featured an officious liberal host querying Columbus about all the liberal accusations against him as he keeps trying to explain his actual purpose in making the voyages. At the end, he concludes that he should only go on Rush Limbaugh.

If I were to choose any twenty year period in modern history that changed the world in so many ways it would be 1490s-1510s. The birth of modernization.

The 1490s were a pivotal time for Europe and world history. Not only did Columbus sail but Rodrigo Borgia became Alexander VI. After his death was Julius II the official renaissance Pope but the process began with Alexander.

Luther was struck by lightening and decided not to become a lawyer (was that a net positive or not?), The Medic’s were thrown out of Florence and Savonarola was burned at the stake. Henry VII of England began the process of enclosure that would drive 75% of peasants off the land and into the cities and later into the arms of the English Reformation–thus to N. America. When Henry’s son Arthur died the next son Henry Prince of Wales, became heir and married his brothers wife, Catherine of Aragorn, a descendent of Spain’s hero, El Cid.

Last but not least Gutenberg perfected moveable type and the printing revolution leading to this fancy computer I’m using was on.

There is a book called The 100 by Michael Hart which lists those the author considers the most influential people in history. Gutenberg was well within the top 10, right behind the Chinese inventor of paper (Tsai Lun). The top 3 were Mohammed, Jesus, and St. Paul (Mohammed ranks first because he had only himself). I don’t recall where Columbus placed.

Movable type allowed relatively inexpensive printing, and thus the collection and dissemination of information. Before the explosion of book-making, everything was fake news. Everything was rumors of rumors. Still, I would surmise you got better information from a traveling minstrel in the 1300’s than from CNN today.

The plow was also a major catalyst for civilization. Gunpowder, the steam engine, and the integrated circuit are other notables. Christians also believe, and not without merit, that the worldview of a transcendent God freed people from old naturalistic superstitions (god of the water, god of the sky, god of the forest, etc.) and allowed them to study nature as a rational creation and thus were able to perceive its coherent patterns — not to mention the furtherance of the idea of people being God’s creation and thus not expendable just to fulfill the needs of some powerbroker.

Ironically, today information has never been so cheap and thus the era of fake news is upon us again. The material abundance provided in large part by the productivity enhancements of machines have freed us from the need to view ourselves as anything but Homo Economicus, and certainly not amongst God’s children who have duties over and above parking your ass in a Barcalounger to watch Marxist millionaires desecrate our national heritage.

And, of course, the preponderance of abortion shows how life has become cheap again as self-fulfillment, radically conceived, displaces a sense of duty.

Eric Lurio, in his cartoon guide to . . . um . . . Christopher Columbus, once cited Louis’s death as the greatest dying scene in history. It seems his son came in as he was dying, and identified himself as Louis XIV. The king objected that he wasn’t king yet, but then collapsed and died. Young Louis ran out saying, “I am now.”

Incidentally, a book on the Man in the Iron Mask argues that this unfortunate was in fact D’Artagnan. Apparently the guardsman had learned from his former commander that Louis XIII not only had no liking for Anne of Austria, but was not inclined that way anyway. In other words, Louis XIV wasn’t his son, and thus not legally king. D’Artagnan was reported killed in battle right before the Man in the Iron Mask was first reported.

How does this work liberals? If Columbus did not sail in 1492 and discover the Americas does that mean the native Americans would still be all alone over here still hunting buffalo with bow and arrow? Columbus just happened to be the one who found it and got credit. If not him it would have been someone else in a few years/decades. Hard to image the outcome would have been much different regardless of who the history books reported. In the 1400 and 1500’s European nations were expanding their empires and conquest would have eventually happened. To pretend the world would be much different if Columbus had not discovered this land is foolish.

It’s a wonderful myth that before white man despoiled the earth for profit, the Noble Savage inhabited the earth, at peace with nature, living without exploitation, happy and self-sufficient. He probably even invented tie-dye.

There were good aspects to the Indians and bad aspects. Same with all peoples. At the end of the day, Stone Age cultures probably never ever have a chance against more advanced cultures. Thank God the Indians never crossed the oceans and held power over others. Some tribes were amongst the most brutal people the earth has ever known.